Really surprised that neither the article nor the comments here mention the #1 barrier to entry. Your average person doesn’t want to strap a big, heavy, sweaty contraption on their face that blocks their vision entirely. Analysts and enthusiasts seem to miss this point constantly.
Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
81–90 of 285 posts
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#82I used to be a casual PC gamer, with a fairly good spec build. Then one day I played some VR games at a friend’s house on PSVR, which blew my mind - not only how much fun I had, but how much fun our non gamer friends had! After that my wife and me got a second hand Vive for 350, and it’s been amazing. I never play regular games any more, and even she (who never played any games) now enjoys it a lot and plays with me…
VR-devices are good but still not good enough. New generations are much better than last that it completely ruins the experience with older hardware.
I tested VR-headset directed at professional use: VR-2 Pro https://varjo.com/products/vr-2-pro/ Now every VR headset directed at consumers feels like utter crap. PSVR and Vive experience is ruined.
If you are willing to cough up €5995, you get really blown away until something better comes along and there is still long way to go. Field of view is just 87 degrees for example.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#83Truly immersive VR experiences are great. The park I went to in Tokyo recently had some fun licensed ones: + A Shin Godzilla themed helicopter raid which required a customized "cockpit" to ride in with rumble capabilities, + A Dragon Quest free-roaming VR adventure which required a LOT of space to enable + A Mario Kart race which, again, required a customized "kart" to ride in which simulated the physics of every sha…
Yes, this seems obvious to me.
Stuff like The Void[1], where a complete arena is built to supplement the visuals, with physical features that match the VR ones (like physical buttons on walls that match the VR projected ones, moving platforms), smells, wind, sounds, etc.
The future of this is going to be incredibly cool, I think. Just subtle stuff like blowing cold air on your face when you're standing on top of a VR mountain, will do wonders for the immersion.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#84Really, what a bad time to publish such article. Oculus Quest hit records with its' sales for Christmas, and out of stock for two months ahead.
Also, Valve will release Half-Life: Alyx [1] in March 2020. It's the first game in the much-loved HL series released since Portal 2 in 2011.
I don't own a VR headset and I don't intend to any time soon - it's too expensive and nothing looks enjoyable enough to justify the cost. But once enough big-name games like Alyx get released, gamers previously on the fence (like me) will start to purchase VR headsets, and VR will eventually become the new gaming platform that publishers wants to release on.
[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#85Really surprised that neither the article nor the comments here mention the #1 barrier to entry. Your average person doesn’t want to strap a big, heavy, sweaty contraption on their face that blocks their vision entirely. Analysts and enthusiasts seem to miss this point constantly.
Got my neither analyst or enthusiast sister the quest this christmas, she and the kids were constantly playing beat saber and pistol whip without stopping.
The quest 100% is less bulky and sweaty, and it includes cameras if people are in your field of control or need to do setup. It really is much better than the last generation in terms of UX and I have the vive and the entire setup.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#86The very main reason VR isn't taking off is because it has no killer app , that is, an app that other platforms can't have, and that people love. End-of-story. What's to understand here is that it's not said that this killer app "exists". If VR is only a cooler screen, then it will sell like cooler screens. Now maybe it's a killer screen, that is a screen that everybody wants. I guess there is a competitive advantage…
I don't know if it will happen, but a killer app that ought to exist is exercise. I've never found anything that gamified exercise the way the Occulus Quest does. The kind of full body workout I get from ducking, weaving, dodging and swinging at fast moving opponents, all at 6:30am in the morning without leaving my home, is simply amazing.
You don't need VR for that, only motion controls. Some people have exercise streaks that go on for years on Nintendo's Wii Fit, and Ring Fit Adventure is on the same path.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#87I'm a firm believer that Oculus Quest is the new beginning of VR. I used to be a real skeptic but now I've turned. I think it's futile to analyse the market pre-Quest and I'm excited of what's to come.
It sends everything you do to Facebook right? Occulus products are the one thing I'll never consider buying.
it evens transmits telemetry to facebook 24x7 when you are not using the headset itself. I have no idea what it is saying, but since I got an oculus, I can see traffic to graph.oculus.com more or less constantly.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people can reportedly get used to the discrepancy between the vision and balance senses and be rid of the motion sickness (with some training: keep playing until you start feeling uncomfortable, wait until the next day, go again). Ginger can also help delay onset. It can also be noted that motion sickness really only is a problem where the game character moves while you stand still physically (e.g. using a joyst…
These are, unfortunately, falsehoods that keep getting perpetuated despite efforts to the contrary. While you can become slightly more tolerant with repeated exposure (as you can with anything noxious), the the discomfort never goes away. And it's not just game character motion. Any camera movement can trigger it, at different levels for different people. If you don't get triggered, count yourself lucky, and don't te…
I get nauseous watching handheld video footage for just a few minutes, if the screen is big enough. Obviously VR is going to be a problem (I've tried it, Project Cars in a dedicated VR cabinet setup at a mall, was sick as a dog within minutes).
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#89Really, what a bad time to publish such article. Oculus Quest hit records with its' sales for Christmas, and out of stock for two months ahead.
Yeah, the evidence they cite for VR declining seems to be entirely within the space of 3DoF VR, like Google's Daydream and VR video:
> Many big name adopters have abandoned their VR projects. Google recently halted sales of Daydream, its VR headset, admitting that "there just hasn't been the broad consumer or developer adoption we had hoped".
> Meanwhile, the BBC has announced it is ending the funding for its VR hub, less than two years after it was founded.
6DoF VR with tracked controllers (Quest, Valve Index) is a whole different beast, and actually seems to be gaining momentum lately.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#90Really, what a bad time to publish such article. Oculus Quest hit records with its' sales for Christmas, and out of stock for two months ahead.
Sold 1.6 million in 2019. Compare that with the switch, that sold 12 million in 2019.